Friday, May 13, 2016

Optics in Politics

Perception is the most important thing to make a judgement. How we visualize about certain things and what kind of optics we use to see to them, shapes our judgement. The current Indian political perception is going from a high hope to despair. A big promise for development is getting replaced with a notion of being directionless. Country is facing acute water shortage and if monsoon does not happens this year, god knows what is going to happen. The scar on the parched fields reflects in the face of a farmer. The cracks in the social structure of the society is reflected in the social media. The worst of this is the way our political leaders are setting their priorities. It seems they have no issues to reflect on.


Starting with Arvind Kejriwal, who jumped on the degree issue of PM Modi. Yes, it's important to know about the authenticity of the academic credentials of the head of state. But it does not warrants the attention of the top leadership of AAP including chief minister. A tweet on the issue should have been good enough, but following that vigorously presents the perception that the chief minister is focusing his complete energy on it. It is true that AAP has been scratched badly in degree row, in terms of their law minister getting sacked. It's also true that it will be difficult to find any logical conclusion on PM's degree matter, considering the current power equations in Indian politics. However what is hurting is the amount of energy invested on this issue by AAP. AAP has come in fore for supporting the notion of positive efforts to uplift the problems of society. They have been doing good work in administrating Delhi, and a common man wants an unrelenting focus on the common man's problem. I expect Arvind Kejriwal to rise to the occasion and put himself in the center of debates about water harvesting, cleaning education system, handling issues of infrastructure. Let the degree row be handled by some cell of AAP.

And than comes the BJP with it's emphasis on development politics, that's the plank on which they came to power. And what happens? Their national president comes to clear the degree row with the finance minister of India. Sir, finance minister, our economics is not in a very good shape and degree row issue does not warrants your time. A suitable clarification by concerned authorities is what was needed. On many other issues, it seems BJP is handling it as if they are in opposition. Helicopter scam can be easily tackled by millions of investigating agencies under government. At least we don't expect the office bearers of the BJP to rake those issues in rallies. The misadventure in Uttarakhand has also not gone well. People still look at PM Modi as a hope for development. We want him to build the debates around him about the development, inclusive development. Please don't let the stray voices in your party to hijack that agenda. Call a common session and get GST passed. People have voted you for a change and they still believe on you.

In all this, Congress looks like a rudderless ship. If they don't know how to handle a issue, the simplest solution is to disrupt the parliament. It's true that the ownership of this legacy partly is because of BJP but people forget history very quickly. Congress has to rise to the occasion and behave like a 125 year old mature party. They have to act as a catalyst for building debates and forcing government to  follow their development agenda. We want debates in parliament and not slogan shouting outside parliament. Handling defeat graciously is the path to future victories. PR agencies can change the advertisements but changing perception requires more ground level work.

The country badly needs a shift towards positive politics. The only solace of these guys right now is the lack of an alternative but things change fast. A social unrest is simmering in the society because of disparity. This social simmering has nothing to do with intolerance debate but it's about the economic structure. It's the disparity and the inability to take minimum care of everyone that will kill us. It's not again about socialist politics as in the long run that will kill the productivity of the country. It's the ability to create enough and equal opportunities for everyone.

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